Funnel cakes are a Pennsylvania Dutch bakery confectionary, traditionally formed by a home maker pouring a batter including wheat flour, eggs, milk, leavening, salt and other materials into a skillet containing heated cooking oil. As the batter is dispensed through the funnel, the funnel is moved over the skillet, in any desired free form, to form an interlocking design, such as a spiral, star or web. The batter, as it cooks, swells to form a relatively flat cake, which is cooked on each side for approximately thirty seconds until it is evenly browned. The resulting funnel cake is removed from the skillet and frequently confectioner's sugar, syrup, ice-cream or other materials are added.
Funnal cakes, with expanding popularity, have been commercialized into dry mix form. The dry mix typically includes wheat flour, sugar, dried whole egg, non-fat dry milk, leavening, salt and artifical flavor, but does not include yeast nor shortening. To the dry mix is added a measured quantity of water or other suitable, similar liquid. The dry mix-water mixture is mixed to form a batter that can be dispensed into the skillet by utilizing a funnel. In addition, the batter can be formed in and dispensed from a pitcher having a long spout into a skillet or other cooking vessel containing heated cooking oil; a particularly suitable pitcher is disclosed in my patent Number 4,230,238. The funnel cake product has been cooked and sold in this manner at retail. In addition, the mix and pitcher have been sold at retail, for home preparation and consumption. However, the popularity of the products sold for home consumption has not been nearly as great as the popularity of the retail, cooked product, apparently because of the cost of the pitcher and perceived difficulties in forming and dispensing the batter.
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved apparatus for and method of enabling funnel cakes to be cooked, particularly in the household situation.
Another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved method of and apparaus for dispensing a batter formed of funnel cake mix and a liquid into a cooking vessel containing heated cooking oil.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved relatively inexpensive method of and apparatus for making funnel cakes from dry funnel cake mix stored in a convenient to use container from which a batter of the mix can be dispensed into a cooking vessel having heated cooking oil therein.